Lives Remembered

Featuring a 109-year-old philanthropist and one of the earliest exponents of
heavy metal

Sept 24, aged 67. Chairman of the Georgian Theatre Royal Trust at Richmond, North Yorkshire, which received numerous awards for its restoration after it reopened in 2003. Her love of theatre was inherited from her mother, the stage and film actress Jane Baxter. She married the 2nd Lord Crathorne after they met while both worked for Sotheby's. He became Lord Lieutenant of North Yorkshire and she subsequently Deputy Lieutenant. Sylvia Crathorne also sat on the Middlesbrough bench, and continued to work as a county patron of Marie Curie Cancer Care after being diagnosed with the disease herself.

Zambo Cavero

Oct 9, aged 68. Peruvian who became famous for singing creole music. An icon of Afro-Peruvian society, his music often fused Spanish-style guitar playing with African-style drums. Helped challenge racial and social barriers in Peru, where he was posthumously awarded the Order of the Sun – the country's highest honour. His most famous song was Contigo Peru. Peruvian president Alan Garcia called Cavero, who was a vast man, "our Pavarotti". Cavero's body lay in state as thousands paid tribute and the country held a day of mourning.

Lionel Pincus

Oct 10, aged 78. Venture capitalist who founded the private equity firm Warburg Pincus, which he ran from 1966 to 2002, and which is said to have invested $29 billion in 600 companies. Co-founder of the National Venture Capital Association. The son of immigrants from eastern Europe, he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in English before taking an MBA at Columbia. Joined the investment bank Ladenburg Thalmann in 1955, becoming a partner aged 29. In 1995 donated $10 million to Columbia University. After the death of his wife, Suzanne (a former Miss Utah), in 1995 he became the companion of Princess Firyal of Jordan, with whom he helped to finance the main map room of the New York Public Library in 2005.

Mary Skaggs

Oct 1, aged 109. Director of the Skaggs Foundation, which awards grants for work in the arts and the environment. Though based in America, the foundation gave away much of its money to causes in Britain, including to the York Archaeological Trust, the National Trust and Westminster Abbey. Born in 1900 in Rotterdam and emigrated with her family to the United States in 1906. Married LJ Skaggs, one of the six brothers who, in 1927, created Safeway supermarkets, the basis of the family fortune. He died in 1970. She was appointed honorary CBE on her 100th birthday.

Shoichi Nakagawa

Oct 4, aged 56. Former Japanese finance minister whose career went into freefall after he appeared to be drunk during at the G7 meeting in Rome in February. He put his slurred, befuddled performance down to the effects of a cold and the medicine he was taking to treat it. But opposition parties suspected drink and called for his resignation. Apologised repeatedly for the incident during the Japanese election this summer but lost his seat none the less. Suicide suspected after he was found dead in his flat.

Dickie Peterson

Oct 12, aged 61. Lead singer and bass guitarist with psychedelic blues trio Blue Cheer, named after a brand of LSD. Described by The Doors' singer Jim Morrison as "the single most powerful band I've ever seen" and now considered an early exponent of "heavy metal". The band's 1968 debut album Vincebus Eruptum featured their biggest hit, a twisted cover of Eddie Cochran's Summertime Blues. Five more albums and numerous line-up changes followed. At the band's break-up in 1971, Peterson was the only original member left. It re-formed in 1979 and 1985. He spent the last two decades of his life in Germany, playing in various new incarnations of Blue Cheer, which recorded three more albums. Released solo albums in 1998 and 1999 before his wild lifestyle caught up with him.